A DAY IN THE LIFE of this rug hooker can be just crazy!! I find other rug hookers' blogs so interesting that I thought I would add my adventures or mis-adventures to the mix!! Join me on my daily journey!!

BEGINNER CLASSES

MY WEBSITE ~ ~ ~

PRODDY SHEEP CLASS ~ ~ ~

This class was GREAT FUN ~ a good time was had by all! I've had inquiries about how soon there will be another class ~ email me if you're interested and when we have enough, I'll set up a date!

~ ~ ~ FRAMES FOR SALE ~ ~ ~

Maple and Oak ~ Large - 12"x 16" working area $135. Small - 9" x 11" working area $95. Adjustable Stand $160. Frames tilt, swivel and collapse for travel. For close-up pix, please click on 'frames' in the 'Labels' column and double-click the pictures! Call 419-884-0244 for information!

GIFT CERTIFICATES available for your favorite rug maker! Contact me by email (gfraizer@neo.rr.com) or phone 419-884-0244 to make arrangements!

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All images and text are the property of me, Alice. If it's my pattern, ask and I will make one available ~ if it's someone else's, I will direct you to that person. Thanks for honoring the creativity of myself and others!

About Me ~ ~ ~

My life is a busy one ~ my husband, Sonny, and I have a blended family of 6 kids, 5 of them married and 10 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren! We have a building business and I am the Office Personnel, if you know what I mean!! I also have a small rug hooking business in my home studio, where I sell as-is wool and my own hand-dyed wool, beautiful frames and stands that my husband builds and some finished hooked pieces, etc. I would love to hook every day, all day, as I'm sure many of you would ~ but that's rarely possible!! Thanks for checking in and I hope you'll find A DAY IN THE LIFE ~ ~ ~ entertaining!!

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

This variety of solids and textures is really a deeper purple that this shows! It's a rainy gloomy day here in Ohio (rain is good)~ I would rather take the pix outside ~ I imagine the fluorescent lighting changes the coloration a bit. This is a lovely shade that one of my customer's just named 'Tomato Soup' ~ I love that!! Also a combination of solids and textures and actually, this customer asked me to set it aside for her! I was matching a swatch she sent of something she bought from me last year ~ it scares me that I actually got it to match!!!!Antique black is what I was going for here and I think it will work! It's a blue/black and should work in well with other darks! My hand-dyed quarters sell for $9.50 each and I realize as-is wool is all the rage right now ~ but there's nothing like the rich color and variation that you get with dyed wool!! I like to offer both and hopefully, it will be well received!!

I dyed 5 1/2 yards of wool yesterday, in between preparing a quote for my 'boss' , doing the laundry and a visit from my friend,Melody (who, by the way, has been traveling a lot this summer, which allowed her to complete her goal of VISITING ALL 50 STATES!!!) Congratulations, Miss Melody!!

Today, I've got three kettles going with reds, golds, and greens ~ maybe another pot of something in the antique black line. Last night I got a small start on a proddy pumpkin mat and I still have the purses on the work table!! When faced with a show, I can get so creative and dream up all kinds of stuff to do ~ but alas, I run out of time!! It's a quirk that I have ~ I couldn't get revved up for this a month ago ~ is it called procrastination??!! I pretty much have that mastered!! So, I'll go like mad till next Saturday and see what comes out of it!!! My husband wants to leave for the lake tonite, so I need to gather things to work on while I'm there and I'm expecting a shipment of wool today and that will need processed!! Holy cow ~ I'm makin' myself nervous!!!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

This is such a cute logo ~ and I thank Kim of http://threadheadsunite.blogspot.com for bestowing this on my ramblings! Kim and I 'met' online when she was recently shopping for a hooking frame and floorstand! Her blog tells me she is a quilter but I know Kim is soon going to be a 'hooker'!!! Part of this award is to in turn bestow it upon 7 other bloggers ~ recently I had to pick 5 of my favorite blogs for the Kreativ Blogger award and that was hard ~ because I like so many and for sure all the ones I have listed on the left of the page deserve the "I LOVE YOUR BLOG" award!!!! So consider yourselves bestowed with this honor!!! Thank you again, Kim!! And I will be adding your blog to my list ~ I didn't even know you had one until now but definitely will be checking in on you!!!Alice

This is the make-do chair that I picked up at the market a couple of weeks ago ~ it will go to my show next weekend. It's a very appealing little piece, don't you think? I like to pick up odds and ends to add a little extra interest to my booth ~ I'll take some pictures of my set-up at the show, so you can see what I do!

Yesterday, I did a little dyeing ~ I didn't start until almost 3 in the afternoon (a school friend was here and we worked on our 45th reunion plans) and then the mister and I had to be ready to go to dinner at 6 at a friend's home. Miss Margo fixed us stuffed peppers ~ she knows it's my very favorite ~ they were yummy!! Two dye pots were left outside in the drive and on the deck ~ I added the vinegar when we returned home at 9:30 and as soon as this blog is posted, I'll lift the lids and see what happened!!!

My dyeing probably leaves a lot to be desired as far as the purists go! And I was feeling a little inadequate in that department until I read, just last night, in one of Deanne Fitzpatrick's books, that she doesn't really use a recipe or record what she does. Sunnie Andress, who's blog is listed at the right, recently posted that she "doesn't really record her formula's and adds a little this and a little that"!! Reading that in print goes a long way to validate for me that I'm not just being kind of free-wheeling but maybe, shall we say, more artistic!!! That makes me feel a lot better!! Except if someone calls and wants more of something they bought from me a while ago ~ then it gets scary!! Flying by the seat of my pants is so uplifting!!!!

Another not so good dyeing habit, is that I try to cram too much wool into the pot and my colors often come out lighter than I'd like! So, yesterday, I tried to follow the rules (it's hard, might I add) and do the recommended amount of wool. I just peeked in one of the pots and amazingly, there is this deep rich color!!! I say 'amazingly' ~ others might say "duh"! There's more dyeing on today's schedule and I'm going to use the leftover water and start from there ~ I started doing that last year and it does conserve water, of course, and takes me down a little different path!! Tomorrow, I'll show you the fruits of my labor!!

Monday, August 25, 2008

Nothing much to post today, so I thought I would show you the house exterior. One of my hooking friends, Kaye, asked me a while ago to do this. Miss Kaye's home is featured in the new Celebrations magazine ~ now that's a fabulous house ~ and all those rugs!! So here it is, Kaye ~ we built our house 15 years ago using a McKie Wing Roth colonial reproduction house plan. Sonny has built three other homes for customers using his plans ~ very cozy and looks like it's been here a long time!

This is located to the left of the front of the house ~ a fence row of hydrangeas that I planted myself! Hydrangeas are so easy to grow ~ I just pulled a stem and root out of the ground ~ stuck it in the new spot, mounded earth around it and watched them grow!! Right now, as fall approaches, the great big blooms are a lovely shade of lime green!

We had one more fun weekend at the lake ~ went to our favorite marina bar late Friday afternoon with our friends and when we returned home, everyone went outside for 'rock sitting' ~ except me!! I went to 'couch' and got up at 9:30 and went to bed ~ sometimes this old girl has to give in and rest!! Saturday, we headed for Put-in-Bay ~ four couples of us ~ we made the rounds of the most fun spots ~ starting with the only winery on the island. We took our own snacks after one friend observed a couple weeks ago, that other people were having little feasts at their picnic tables! We used to 'sneak' in pretzels and tidbits but this time we went all out ~ cheeses, crackers, meat sticks, nuts, etc.!!! Then we looked at the table next to us ~ they had a tablecloth, plastic wine goblets, chicken, egg rolls,a veritable buffet ~ we were drooling!! But after a couple of bottles of wine ~ per couple ~ and watching them haul out three coolers, we decided ours was just fine!! We pitched our zip-locks and grocery bags in the trash ~ we had nothing to carry for the rest of the day!! Except for our friend, Annie, who carried one bag of leftover cheese chunks for me in her purse ~ it was cheese ball by the time we arrived back at night!!! We finished off the evening with bruschetta that Annie had made and homemade peach cobbler, that I baked before we left!! Once again ~ a good time was had by all!! The only downside was that one couple couldn't come as her dad is very ill ~ we missed them a bunch and spoke of them often during the day ~ we're keeping their family in our prayers every day.

It's 2:30 in the afternoon and I'm determined I'm going to dye some wool today ~ and make the handles for those purses I'm working on - I'll let you know how it goes!! 'Talk' to you soon!Alice

Friday, August 22, 2008

Isn't this the best mermaid?? She is so cute and sooo colorful!! I'm very partial to mermaids ~ I have any number of mermaid patterns to hook for the lake place ~ have I started one? No ~ but this inspires me!! Mermaid is hooked by Thirza Youker ~ we met on the trip to England two years ago and each year at the Sauder rug show, I get to see her!Ta da!! The lovely lady in green is Thirza, the mermaid artist!!! And the lady in blue, who is looking so happy with her camera, is my friend, Heidi!! We were all glad to see one another and check in on mutual friends ~ that is only one of the added bonuses of attending the Sauder Village Rug Show!!

This morning, I'm doing laundry, more garden watering (hope it's enough till Sunday), packing for the weekend, and hooking!! Last night, around 11:15, I went down to my hooking room and started the 4th purse front for that order I mentioned several weeks ago!! I hooked for two hours and have background to fill in ~ I'm determined to get that done, steam and serge each one, and take them to the lake to hand-sew the backs onto the hooked front!! Then next week, I have to make the shoulder strap, attach that to the purse, line them, affix a closure and antique button and get those things in the mail!! And on September 6, I have a show that I need to dye for!! Do you think I'm a little bit busy??!! But that's my m.o. ~ cram it all into as short a time period as possible and hope for great results!! Have a good weekend!Alice

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Chicken rugs were quite popular at the Sauder Rug show!! Only two made it into my camera for some reason but they were all great ~ hooked chickens and proddy chickens both! This guy is quite colorful and seems very proud!

This runner full of chickens was sizable! The colors are beautiful, don't you think?

This week is just flying by! Yesterday, after getting these gray hairs colored, I drove to Columbus to have lunch with my nephew's wife and two little girls ~ Ariana is 2 and a half and Isabella will be one next week! My niece, Cheri (who is their aunt ~ I am the great auntie) and my grandson, Luke, went along!! Can I tell you how much fun we had in a Chinese restaurant!! It looked like a disaster area around their high chairs when we left!! They live in Florida so this was our first time to meet Isabella ~ both are such cute little girls!!

I'm out to water the gardens ~ it is so dry here ~ every day I kept thinking it would rain and it seems like I've waited a little too long ~ things are looking pretty wilted ~ kind of like me!!!! More tomorrow!Alice

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

These two "walls" of rugs were really interesting. The wall at the right is an eclectic assortment ~ the "Tea and Oranges" rug is a stand-out! I love the border on the fruit bowl rug and Halloween rugs are always a winner!

Diane Kelley's cake rugs in the picture below are 'fanciful' in nature ~ they're fun and creative! Diane hooks in different styles including primitive, proddy, and the very artsy fun stuff! We stepped into her class at the hotel and people were working on all kinds of things ~ proddy chickens, sheep, wide cut scrolls (Gene Shepherd) ~ lots of great rugs in that room!

These two monochromatic rugs were really appealing ~ so restful to the eye. The postcard rug at the right is a beauty! So much detail and such beautiful coloring and shading.The woman and baby rug appears to be hooked with nylon tricot that has been dyed these warm neutral colors. When we were in England, we learned that they use lots of nylon in their hooking, where we often use only wool. A rug I purchased from Cilla Cameron has nylon used for the pumpkin stems ~ it gives off kind of a shimmery glow! It was that shimmer in the woman and baby rug that made me realize the artist had used tricot as their hooking medium.

There are a couple of pictures I'll save for the next post ~ it takes me forever trying to line up the words and pix side by side ~ it doesn't really happen but at least you get to see some of the wonderful art that is rug hooking!

Monday, August 18, 2008

These two rugs show very dark but I think if you double click on them, they will show up better. The runner is very long ~ it took up an entire backdrop plus some of the ones on either side. It was very dark but very showy! The bottom rug is quite a looker also!This red, white and blue is sculptured ~ many of the motifs were hooked high and then trimmed ~ lots of dimension in this rug! Also, it gives me ideas ~ if I can remember them!!

I love Santa Claus and this rug just took my eye ~ I believe Keith Kemmer was the artist. Love all the little houses running around the border!

There are more Sauder pix that I will post this week. I want to keep you waiting for the rest!! Not really ~ just saving them so I have something to write about this week!

My friends Heidi, Cindy, and Peg and I went to the rug show on Wednesday ~ we were there from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. We went thru the rug show several times, shopped the vendors, ate in the Barn restaurant (they have a wonderful buffet!) and for the first time, we went thru the classrooms. We didn't know that was available to us but if the door is open and the 'Welcome Visitors' sign is out, you can stroll around and look at all the rugs in progress! And a lot of rugs there were ~ and women and a couple of men, just swimming in wool!! Maybe next year, that will be us!! We're thinking we might 'take the plunge'!!!

Gene Shepherd and I converse thru email and our blogs ~ so we set up a time to meet and chat a bit. He's an interesting fellow ~ full time pastor and it seems, a full time rug hooker and an author. His newest proddy book was there (only one copy) which will be coming out this fall. It was good being able to see his work first hand and see his class project unfold ~ beautiful colors in a 10 cut mat that he's doing.

At the end of the day, we drove to our lake condo (minus Cindy, who had to leave us), and it was nice to sit on the deck and watch the water go by for a while! We had some adult beverages, and then finally had some dinner at 9 that night!! The next day we went out for breakfast ~ heaven forbid if we miss a meal! ~ and then headed to a yarn shop, Just for Ewe ~ over near Marblehead. I thought the girls might like it there!! They carry such unusual things ~ lots of handspuns and painted yarns and nubby yarns ~ just color and texture everywhere ~ not your run of the mill yarn shop for sure!! Then back to the condo for some hooking! We were joined by a gal we met at a hook-in, who lives close by ~ Pat spent the afternoon with us and we enjoyed her company immensely!! Our friend, Peg, doesn't hook but I showed her how to needle felt and I think she likes it!! We'll see what she does next!!!

We arrive back home around 6 because the next day I had to go to a wholesale market in Columbus to pick up a few things to add to my booth for my next show. I found a real cute rocker ~ I'll post that in a few days! And then we headed back to the lake in the afternoon!! I'm afraid if I stand still, moss will start growing!! Saturday we went to a wine tasting in Sandusky ~ 15 wineries and several food vendors with very tasty morsels to buy!! Then on Sunday, my step-son, Brian and his wife dropped by ~ we went to Mon Ami winery for jazz and a little lunch on the lawn ~ they were celebrating their 17th Anniversary! Congratulations to them!!

Friday, August 15, 2008

At the Sauder Village rug show on Wednesday, this rug "Helen's Tapestry" was there in all it's glory! This is the rug that Sunnie Andress is hooking right now and has on her blog ~ if you click on 'Sunnie Andress blog' from my list of favorites, you'll be right there! I emailed Sunnie this photo and she asked me to post it on Wool Snippets for her, but the file was too big or that's what the message told me, at any rate. So I'm posting it here for you all to view ~ it's very different than Sunnie's and it's interesting to look at them both! That dear Sunnie called me her "Wool Sister" ~ don't you just love that??!!! I do regret not getting the name of the artist who hooked it ~ so many things going on that day!

Sauder Village was just great ~ we had a long day there and I know I missed some things for sure. I have other pix that will be on the next post ~ but wanted to get this one on for Sunnie. Have a good weekend!!Alice

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Good morning! This is my first attempt at posting multiple pictures and descriptions of each!! There is a help site on Blogger that tells how to do this! As I was preparing my rugs to send to the Sauder Village rug show, it occurred to me this might make an interesting post!! Let's see how it goes!! The above picture is a close-up of my style of binding ~ I don't whip the edges ~ too time consuming and I like the simplicity of the binding tape or wool strips used in the same fashion. First I serge the foundation fabric after the project is hooked, leaving an inch or so to fold under and steam press. Then, I hold the tape up against the hooking (since I am left-handed, this might look backwards to you), anchor the beginning end with several stitches and then place each stitch as close as I can possibly get up against the hooking. It is a whip stitch of sorts, I guess, and when the project is finished, the foundation fabric is totally covered. Then I anchor the other edge of the tape to the rug with almost invisible stitches, catching the foundation fabric of the rug, rather than the hooked wool, for stability. Oh, the thread is a buttonhole twist or heavy craft thread. This is a close-up without my hands!!Labeling our work is very important ~ some of my early rugs still need done ~ I'm trying to do better since rugs must be labeled before they're entered in a rug show. Last year, at a quilt show, I found sheets of fabric that can be run thru a copier (they could be purchased at a fabric store or even an office supplier). I write the information regarding the rug on a piece of paper, put it in the copier and run the fabric thru just like any copy paper and voila! Peel that part of the fabric off the fabric sheet, leaving the backing intact so that the remaining fabric may be used for other labels, and cut the new label away from the rest of the fabric. Then, iron the edges under about a quarter of an inch which also sets the print. This is the finished product stitched to the back of my Catfish rug. I think it makes a neater looking label than my previous ones ~ which was writing with a fabric pen on muslin or linen ~ it was hard to get a fine enough pen and it always looked messy to me. With this, you can get as creative as you want, if you have the time!

Tomorrow morning, my friends and I are off to Sauder Village and then a day at the lake to hook!! I'll take some pictures of the rug show and post when I return!! Have a good rest of the week!!Alice

Thursday, August 7, 2008

This is an Oakleaf hydrangea plant off our brick walkway ~ my friend sent a couple pieces of this home with us a few years ago and it has grown to be nice large plant! The other one is by the drive and it's a monster!! The sculpture behind it is made of rebar and pieces from some kind of farm equipment and some tin hearts ~ I loved this piece when I saw it at the antique show in Springfield, Ohio several years ago ~ nice and rustic against the cedar siding. The green leaf to the left of the picture is horseradish!!! Sonny grinds that up and puts it in jars for gifts and for himself ~ I don't eat horseradish only in ketchup for shrimp cocktail ~ then it's good!

The wine order from the wine party came in on Monday ~ three cases of it!! Everyone but one couple, had their wine shipped here because I'm home all the time ~ it has to be signed for or UPS won't leave it. So ~ I got to sort the orders out ~ make sure everyone got what they were supposed to ~ and then deliver it!! A case is going to our lake friends this weekend and the others go to my son and their friends!! Sonny and I had a little sample of what he ordered that night ~ pinot noir ~ not for me!! One of the bottles that I ordered was an Asti ~ that suits me very well!!

And my wool order arrived Tuesday!! So the washer and dryer have been working overtime and it's all ready to go!! I sell wool out of my home studio and I have a show coming in September ~ so there are some interesting new wools available! Another one will be arriving the end of the month ~ I'm ready for whatever the universe is sending my way!!!!!!!!

This week, I've made yet another commitment to exercise ~ I'm gonna get this body in shape, I swear!! Yesterday, I was on the AbLounger - Sport model (whatever that means) and was so into it that I slid off it and landed on my head and then had to do a sideways summersalt to dislodge myself!!! I hit my head on a small bolt that was on the metal support underneath the thing and felt like there was a hole in my head (along with the others!) ~ I considered writing a note for my husband that in case he found me dead, that is the reason why!! As the day wore on ~ I recovered but it would have been a great Candid Camera shot!!!!!!!!!

Office work awaits ~ I keep thinking I'm going to get fired from this good job ~ but it seems he hangs onto me for some weird reason!!! One might be that no one else could come into this office and make sense of it! Have a good day!!

Monday, August 4, 2008

As you can see, I like doing proddy ~ proddy sheep in particular! This is one that I did at Barb Carroll's in one of her mini's , a couple of years ago. It is her Flag Day Sheep pattern but when I decided to do the sheep in proddy, the design took on a life of it's own. Barb added the flag background and then I added the braided border and voila! ~ this is the end result! I really like this guy, too!

I tear my proddy strips 1" wide and then cut them 3-4" long on an angle, so that I get this really shaggy look. There are 4 or 5 different wool textures in the body of the sheep. For me, a spring-loaded prodder works best and it's all done from the front of the pattern, which I hold in my lap or maybe work off a table.

My braiding is pretty rustic ~ I tore strips maybe 2" wide, sewed the strips together by hand, and then folded the edges in and braided at the same time. This whole rug was done in 3 days, including the braiding ~ when I returned home, I attached the braiding to the rug (the tricky part was blending the ends of the strips into each other at the end) and then bound the rug with wool strips. I have to say, one more time, that I just love this rug ~ but I really love most every rug I've done. The rugs that are displayed around our house are rugs that I've done at class or camp ~ there are others that I do for shows and with that in mind, I don't have a hard time parting with them. I do give a class on proddy in my home studio and sell the spring-loader prodders ~ anyone interested can contact me at gfraizer@neo.rr.com!

Just a note ~ right after I started this post, my darling Mr. Kitty jumped on the surge protector and shut the electric off to the computer!! I have to call him 'darling' so I don't say the bad thing that was running through my brain!!!!

We had a quiet weekend at the lake. Went for dinner Friday night with friends, went to an Art in the Park Saturday morning, came home and watched TV and napped ~ the entire afternoon!!! And ate ham sandwiches for supper!! We were definitely a couple of slugs that day!! Sunday, we had friends from home, up for the afternoon and went out for a fish sandwich before they left! Evidently, we needed a rest!!! And I didn't work on binding Mr. Catfish!! But that got started this morning!! So back to the hooking room to work on that ~ have a good day and thanks for reading!!Alice

Friday, August 1, 2008

This is the sheep rug that was our project when a group went to England two years ago. Cilla Cameron taught us the proddy portion and Heather Ritchie taught the stone wall background ~ what a challenge that was!! Heather's sample rug was a purple sheep and I latched onto one of the purple wool packets that was offered!! Then we chose 4 or 5 pieces of wool that Heather custom dyed for the stone walls. Kris Miller and I took close-up pix of Heather's stone wall hooking and it definitely helped when I was hooking this back home without her input! Heather had dyed Wensleydale fleece for sale and several packages of that came home with me ~ some purple went in the sheep body and I improvised on the pattern a bit and used the green for grass under the little sheep feet. I also made an attempt at a proddy flower at the end of the grass!! Those rock walls were the hardest thing to hook in such a fashion that it looked like stones ~ Heather lived her lifetime surrounded by all that texture and it was second nature for her but for most of us, it was a struggle! On my England Memory Rug, I prodded a smallish purple sheep into the top right of the rug to commemorate our reason for being in England in the first place.

There is an online rug hooking forum that I frequent and there are several rug hooking challenges that have been set up recently. The one that I joined is Unfinished Objects and you can check it out at http://www.uforughookers.blogspot.com/. So many rug hookers have pieces they've started and get put aside so this is a way to tackle that UFO and be held accountable through the team blog they've set up. It will be fun and productive, for sure! Mine is a rug of my grandchilren's hands that I started two years ago ~ the picture and story about it are on that blog site.

Several weeks ago, I posted about my sister, Joyce, having an embolism and heart attack. I'm happy to report that she is doing well ~ she even went out last week and did her Meals on Wheels route ~ hello !!!! She said her doctor said to do what she felt up to doing and she did!! We're a tough bunch and I know she doesn't want to let this get the best of her ~ I give her a lot of credit for that. She started hooking about the same time I did but hasn't pursued it as much ~ she mentioned that her hooking is shreddy and she doesn't hook fast, etc. I sent her the Hartman Hook this week and am waiting to hear if it's helped! I sell them now, because it made all the difference for me in regard to the ease of hooking with wide cuts! I hope she likes it and it gets her hooking again!

Another weekend is here ~ a new month has started! Does time fly for all of you like it does here? Holy crow ~ it's hard to keep up sometimes!! Take care and have a good weekend!